Le Jour des Morts by William Bougueareau, 1859
“That they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” Rev 14:13
God, The Giver of Victory and Peace
... The martyred dead have taken possession of this Southern soil for the Southern people. It was theirs originally, by the gift of God, and they have bought it anew by their blood. This land will be endeared to us and to our posterity, because it is the earthly resting-place of our immortal dead. It was the boast of the ancient Greek, as his eye wandered over his beautiful and beloved land, that every hill bore the tomb of a hero or the temple of a God. But more noble dust mingled not with the soil of Attica than that which reposes in the bosom of our own dear native land. It surely lends attraction to heaven, viewed with reference to our present constitution, to think that there we shall behold and converse with the best and lovliest we have known on earth. If Socrates could talk of transports of joy at the prospect of seeing Palamedes, Ajax and other heroes of antiquity in a future world--how should the Christian feel when he looks forward to an everlasting abode, not a transient meeting with the saints of all ages--with his Christian friends who have fallen in his defence--and with Christ Himself, the Author and Finisher of our faith. If he hoped for felicity in comparing his experience with theirs--how shall we rejoice in reviewing dispensations of Providence now impenetrably dark, or imperfectly understood, but then shining in the light of Heaven. The past and the future meet in the memory of the dead. The sweetest and brightest link in the chain that stretches back over the past, binds us to the dead; and that chain stretches forward to eternity and attaches itself to the Throne of the living God. Thus death joins on to life; and all that is sacred in memory connects itself with all that is inspiring in hope. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
As this passage was printed in 1862 by members of the Confederacy, it exists in the PUBLIC DOMAIN by law. No part of it contains anything, to this editor's knowledge, that was added to the original manuscript in subsequent publications
Read the entire sermon here with annotations by UNC.
[http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/giver/giver.html]